From the Desk of … Ilana Masad

This week I asked Isreali-American writer and McSweeney’s columnist Ilana Masad to share a picture of her desk and answer the age-old question: Messy or clean?

I want it to be clean. I do. I really really really do. But somehow bookmarks, rarely used notepads and post-it-style notes, various mugs, the microphone I use to record my podcast, a box of clear pushpins (have no idea why that’s still there) creep in. This is not my ideal desk. But it is the desk I have. Why is my desk messy? Because I live in a small room in an apartment in Manhattan, and this tiny desk (very broken, one leg propped up by last year’s tax info envelope) is all I have room for. – Ilana Masad